We're all accustomed to the Hillary campaign and their whimsical game of musical goal posts.
Obama apparently has had enough.
Speaking today in Raleigh, NC, Sen. Obama laid it on the line: a win in North Carolina will seal the deal.
Obama walked out to the overflow with Congressman G.K. Butterfield. He took a quick phone call on the way out.
Once he got to the overflow site, he grabbed the mike and gave the standard overflow talk. He spoke for 2:20, and then did about 10 minutes of ropeline. "I’m sorry that we couldn’t get everybody inside but not everybody inside’s going to shake my hand, so I don’t know who gets the better deal, you don’t have to listen to me talk but we can shake hands," he said to loud applause.
On the importance of North Carolina’s May 6 primary: "Everybody understands how important this election is. North Carolina is going to be critically important. If we can win in North Carolina, I bet we can wrap up this nomination," he said. "And if we can win this nomination then I think we can beat John McCain."
Obama knows he will win North Carolina by a decisive margin and erase much if not all of Hillary's expected delegate gains in Pennsylvania. At that point, on May 6, there will be nothing Hillary can do to shift the math in her favor short of coup by superdelegate.
If Hillary continues her campaign after North Carolina after making no significant dent in Obama's delegate lead or in the popular vote (or in the national polls), then look for Obama's surrogates -- and possibly Obama himself -- to make the case for Hillary to exit the race.